Author: Alison Booth
ISBN: 978-1-910453-49-0
RRP: $26.95
Publisher: RedDoor Publishing Ltd
Copy: Courtesy of the Publisher
A Perfect Marriage has an interesting premise that leaves me formulating strange and unexpected twists just from reading the synopsis. This is another one that really grabbed my interest and I look forward to reading just as soon as I can get my admin up to date and bury myself in my book pile.
A Perfect Marriage is a contemporary look at love, friendship, single parenthood and quite topically domestic violence. In a move that is quite unlike me, I have skimmed a couple of Goodreads reviews and the domestic violence seems to be quite graphic so I think that’s a warning I’m glad to be going in with.
Sally Lachlan has a haunting secret that she’s been hiding for over a decade. She survived a terrifying violent relationship and swore to protect her now teenaged daughter from the truth. Charlie is now at an age where she wants to know more about her father and Sally is the only one who can share that with her.
A chance meeting with charismatic geneticist Anthony Blake sees Sally start thinking about love and finding happiness, but first, she needs to make peace with her past.
Told across dual timelines in the present and the past Booth addresses some super topical issues with the alarming rate of domestic violence deaths in the country at the moment.
An interesting read I’m sure, and one I can’t wait to get stuck into. In the meantime, I will look forward to hearing what our members thought of the book.
Alison can be followed on Facebook, Twitter, and her Website.
A Perfect Marriage is published by RedDoor Publishing and is available now through Angus & Robertson Bookworld, Booktopia and where all good books are sold.
Thanks to RedDoor Publishing 9 of our Beauty and Lace Club Members will be reading A Perfect Marriage so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments below.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
Wow! What a read this was. Thank you Beauty & Lace + Alison Booth for the fab read.
A Perfect Marriage is written from the view point of Sally Lachlan. We follow Sally as the story switches between past and present. The present we see her with her daughter Charlie, living a calmer life. She meets the charming, successful Anthony Blake. The past I found quite confronting as she is finding her way out of a violent marriage. The story, as it switches between had me wondering how and what was going to happen, and until the very end had me guessing. The characters felt very real which drew me in also.
Easily 5/5 stars from me 🙂
Thanks to B&L and Alison Booth for the chance to review this book.
A Perfect Marriage is anything but what the title suggests. It is split between the past and the present, and about Sally Lachlan and her daughter Charlie.
We are taken on a journey with these two and given an insight into domestic violence, and how it is also about mental torture as well. There are twists and turns in the this book, but I am not going to give anything away.
I was left wondering what was going to happen, to the very last page.
This was an easy read and most enjoyable.
A very moving book. It felt like you had to read very word, so didn’t miss anything. It shows you with any relationship you don’t know what hiding underneath the surface. I enjoyed this book.
“The Perfect Marriage” is the story of Sally Lachlan, more than it is the story of her marriage. Certainly, her past marriage to Jeff, and his violent behaviour, is a critical part of her story. But it’s also the story of the lies we tell the world, Sally’s reawakening interest in finding genuine love, how Sally has raised her daughter alone, and the friendships that have supported or suffocated her.
I found it a little difficult to become emotionally engaged with this novel, despite the very emotional subject matter. There’s an analytical tone to the prose that suits Sally – a scientist – but unfortunately distances the reader somewhat. I never quite overcame this, so that I found the novel interesting and powerful, but never really engrossing.
Despite this flaw, it’s a good novel that explores an important subject in an unexpected way. Looking at a violent marriage with distance, rather than in the moments of horror or violence, underlines the broad and life long impact of such a relationship. It also emphasises the difficulty of acknowledging violence in a relationship, and then of talking to other people about it.
Sally is a well drawn character, and as we get to know her, we empathise with her strongly. Other characters, such as her daughter Charlie, and her friend Zoe, are also strongly drawn and mostly empathetic.
I can’t precisely say that I enjoyed the novel – it deals with such fraught subject matter. I did however appreciate it, and feel that reading it was worthwhile. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in exploring a side of violent relationships that is rarely seen.
Absolutely loved this book. It was a book about relationships both good and bad and I felt as though the story line was easy to follow and an enjoyable read.
I felt as though I connected with each of the characters. Thanks Beauty and Lace for the opportunity to read this book. 5 stars for me thanks Alison Booth.
Thank you B&L and Alison Booth for the opportunity to review Perfect Marriage. I loved that the book had you intrigued from the very beginning. Alison did a fantastic job of really capturing the fear Sally Lachlan felt in her marriage. It gave you great insight into what this must feel like for sufferers of domestic violence.
The novel had a beautiful contrast of romance and hope.
Perfect Marriage had me turning the pages wanting to know how it was all going to end.
I would definitely recommend this book – five stars from me.
A perfect marriage… something that Sally definitely didn’t have with her husband. Sally learnt early in her marriage that her husband couldn’t control his anger and she would wear the brunt of it. Sally finally leaves him when she catches him in the act with another woman.
The story switches back and forth between now and then. We get to see her relationship bloom with a fellow geneticist, her daughter search for the truth and her disastrous past.
It was a great book to read and it was very well written. At times it would give me a knot in my stomach. I would not recommend this to anyone who wanted a light feel good story, but if you wanted a controversial topic dealing with real life, this is for you.